The Way Things Ought to Be

For a long time, I have wondered if anyone else would see things my way. I'm not speaking of anything profound or world changing, just displays; televisions and monitors. First of all, no matter how good the technique is that they use, interpolation will just not give the best image quality. All of today's technologies (LCD, plasma, DLP) use discreet pixels that, unlike those of a CRT, do not take well to any resolution other than their native. As a result, standard 480 television/DVD do not look their best on an HDTV. Well, a little quick math, and you see that none of the common resolutions adapt well to displays but for another. Bottom line: 1080p, in all its glory, just isn't good enough! A little more math, though, shows you that the first time the stars align for a videophile is at 2160p or Quad HD as some have called it (3840x2160).

While it will be quite some time (if ever) before any content is available at that mouth-watering resolution, there's really no need as ever bit of video you already have access to will look its absolute best at that size with pixel doubling (tripling, etc.). It just happens that 2160 is exactly twice 1080 and three times 720. While it's awkwardly 4.5 times 480, 3840 is exactly five times 640 and who needs the top and bottom 5% of the screen? Do you really miss the news ticker at the bottom? Besides, if you are watching a movie it's just black bars anyway so it's perfect.

All of this will get rid of the spatial interpolation that degrades quality from our entertainment, but what about the temporal interpolation schemes to which we subject our content, for example 3:2 pulldown and the like. The same problem comes up where we are trying to squeeze two different numbers into the same space: most high-quality content is recorded at the cinematic standard of 24 frames per second and television broadcasts and the sets that display them are designed to display 30 frames per second. Displaying these on the same set degrades one or the other (almost always at the expense of movies since the sets are designed for broadcast even though almost everyone would rather have the higher quality on their premium content).

Again, math to the rescue! You had to see that coming. A coincidence of numerology would have it that 120Hz is a perfect multiple of both these numbers. By simply sending the same image for 4 or 5 frames we eliminate complex schemes like 3:2 pulldown that really only do a good job of faking it. Fortunately, others really are thinking like me for a change (God help them) and such products are starting to make their way to market. What I'd like to see is both in the same product and you would have the ultimate viewing experience. We just need to wait a little while for a couple more revisions of the HDMI spec to carry all that data which would allow the screen to be used at its full resolution on a PC…

…but that's just my opinion.

OK, OK, sorry...

I know I said that I wasn't going to start this thing and then abandon it, which is exactly what I have done, but it was a big year and I am just starting to settle into my new life. So, what's been so big that it's kept me from writting a few simple paragraphs, you ask? OK, well remember, you asked for it:

In no particular order, I bought a new house, got married, got a promotion at work, and am now expecting a new baby girl to add to my first. Truth be told, I didn't really get the new place with the intention of having a wife and two kids here so it's setting up to get a little crowded in here, but I couldn't be happier, finally having a place that I can truly call my own.

My new wife is the mother of my first daughter so that really helps to make my life feel complete in a way that it didn't a year ago, bringing the family back together and all, you know? I won't lie and say that it's all peaches and roses or anything like that, but it's so much better arguing with someone that you love than arguing with someone you used to love. Of course you also can't beat having someone that, at the end of the day, you know is on your side.

About the job, it's a lot more challenging than my last position which was basic entry-level stuff so I am even a lot happier at work, too. My new job involves a lot more thinking and responsibilty but that was exactly what I wanted so it has been working out great. I have been doing it for a couple of months now so I am finally starting to feel more comfortable and capable. It will still take a little while to get to the point where I am considered "good" at it but I as well as my peers all have faith in my abilities and know it will just be a matter of time.

Well, those are the biggest changes that I have experienced since my last post but I promised that there wouldn't be too much personal drivel on here so I'll wrap it up now. After all, people don't want to hear about what's going on in my simple little life...

...but that's just my opinion.

Google Talk

Quite simply, Google is by far the most exciting tech company today.  The number of exciting new products they have produced in the last year or so (not to mention their stock price) shouts this from the mountain tops.  Everyone has raved about their market-ruling search engine for years so when they started expanding into other areas of software development a few years ago many were quite excited to see what they would come up with.  Well, they were anything but disappointed.  The latest example of these developments is the new Google Talk.  Unlike most of Google’s recent announcements, though, Google Talk was greeted with an uncharacteristically lukewarm reception.

Many online pundits are saying that this is because the application doesn’t seem to live up to the expectations that Google has set itself up for when creating new tools.  It doesn’t seem, they say, to have any stand-out features that make it uniquely useful or intelligent in its design, making it seem that it was “just done right.”

Not so fast, I say.  It seems that the “wow factor” that Google Talk has going for it is its open architecture.  There are two aspects here to which I am referring.  The first is Google’s use of open standards in the communication protocols used.  Obviously, this is nothing particularly innovative since Google itself lists the numerous predecessors to which they can connect thanks to the open protocols.  The novel aspect of this is the size and reputation Google brings with it to the IM table.  It is the first of the web juggernauts to release an IM app based on interoperability standards.  With as much influence as Google has on the internet now, they may have the power that the smaller services don’t, to force a reexamination of IM interoperability that has not been seen since the AOL Time-Warner merger.

Unlike the “Big Three” of the IM market today (AOL, Microsoft, and Yahoo!), Google seems to have a culture that promotes open and free communication.  Google encourages other IM clients to work with Google Talk.  Logically so, of course, since Google would be almost unable to modify their offering to lock them out anyway, as that would undermine the standard protocol on which they base their service in the first place.  On the other side of this coin, if the other market leaders wanted to work with Google Talk, they would most easily do so by using those same standards, thereby opening their networks not only to Google, but also to the interoperability that the web community has craved for so long.  The history of the IM market is riddled with examples of one IM client hacking into another in the name of open interoperability (rightly so) only to be (foolishly) locked out by the next update, so using open standards would put this cat and mouse game in the past.

The second facet of openness that Google Talk exposes is through Google’s strong developer-facing attitude.  If Google opens up its IM app through APIs the way it did with Google Maps, there is little doubt that it will attract nearly as many developers that will extend the application to do things that even the creative geniuses at Google Labs didn’t think of.  In fact, a powerful API interface is what makes an application and a platform.  (As a side note, this is exactly why opening an application through APIs is a smart idea for all software developers: it allows enthusiastic and devoted users to do some of your value-added development for you, for free.)  This could extend the platform well beyond what Google has right now and could very well be where the wow factor comes from that makes Google Talk the must have application Google Maps and Gmail are.  This formula has worked wonders for Winamp and Firefox with their respective plug-ins and extensions (not to mention their skins and themes).  In fact, in those two examples, some of the most popular user-created add-ins are now included by default as if they were part of the applications themselves.

Given all the positive press and wonderful applications that have grown out of the developer community hacking away at Google Maps, I would expect Google to do nothing less with IM, and that is what makes Google Talk much more than just another IM client…

…but that’s just my opinion.

RFC-CRJQZ20050821-01

This is my first request for comments (RFC) and in this case it is quite literal.

Basically, I was quite discouraged when I received no comments on my last entry.  It’s not that I really expected people to comment, I suppose.  It’s more the fact that I got 2 comments on my first entry and so when you figure that most people don’t leave comments, then 2 isn’t too bad for the first post.  On the other hand, when I received no comments on the second, the same math would imply that no one read a word.  While that is probably not the case (I hope), it’s still disheartening.  So here is where the RFC comes in.  If it works, it will be two-fold, and that’s the ingenuity that I liked about it that made me decide to put it out there.

I am requesting that you, the reader, give me suggestions via your comments on a good view counter that I can add to the page so that I tell if people are actually seeing my words.  I know it doesn’t tell me if people are reading, but your suggestions will do that for me.  See the plan here?  Then, in the long run, even if people are just landing on the page and leaving, at least my counter will click and I will feel a little better about myself, which in turn will motivate me to keep writing.  My ideal candidate would be free and preferably skinnable so that I can let it match my theme (which will be changing at some point; I hate not customizing things) but don’t let that hold you back, feel free to post any and all suggestions.

All in all, a good scheme I think…

…but that’s just my opinion.

Social Creatures

It seems to me that geeks, despite our reputations, are very social creatures. We get a bad reputation because, like anyone, we prefer to be social with others that have similar interests but geeks happen to be a rather small minority, making this more difficult than it might be for others. As a result, we often get a reputation as loners since we don’t always mesh well with the larger population, but the same can generally be said about almost anyone. People, in general, prefer to connect with others with which they share common interests and when they find themselves in the minority, they tend to isolate themselves.

As an illustration of my point, I point out what technology has done in the last few decades. Most of the greatest advancements in technology were improved means of communication and interaction. Recent technological innovations have created more powerful means of communication than the world has ever seen. It has created the biggest communities and social networks ever conceived and it has proven that millions of heads are better than one. As examples, I cite Usenet/newsgroups, e-mail, IM, cell phones, message boards/forums, talkback on news articles, podcasts, blogs, Flikr, Skype, Amazon, eBay, Google with its recommendation based view of links, Napster and it’s progeny, Friendster, Facebook (the Friendster for college students) and massively multiplayer on-line games. All these things either facilitate communication or enhance or even create communities (or both) and, interestingly, almost all were created by Computer Science majors and programmers and were originally used solely by geeks until the rest of our social species realized how great they are.

The same thing happened with the telephone when it was first invented. People thought that it was too impersonal to be considered a viable means of communication but once they tried it, the world was sold. Today, people feel comfortable enough with them that over a billion people feel the need to carry a phone with them everywhere they go to stay in touch with friends, family, and colleagues. That’s more than 1/6 of the world’s population; even more if you only count industrialized countries. The proportion grows larger still when not counting children although they are increasingly likely to have phones of their own. This is what geeks have given the world: the popularity of computers that has brought them into nearly every American home was not due to some really cool game or a particularly compelling web site. It was the potential to communicate with friends and colleagues through e-mail and IM that made having a computer and an internet connection worthwhile. It was also the ability to participate in and contribute to the macrocosm of on-line communities that attracted non-geeks.

I myself have been using ICQ since before AOL even had IM let alone before they bought Mirabilis (the creator of ICQ, the first IM client) and before that I was using e-mail like IM complete with multiple simultaneous conversations. It was like slow IM when IM came about I thought, “why didn’t I think of that, I already do it on a daily basis!” It took another 4-5 years before the average consumer started to IM their friends rather than pick up the phone or turn to the Internet to keep in touch with distant relatives through photo albums and e-mail. I have seen statistics that say that on-line banking and using financial software and working from home are often cited as some of the most common reasons for buying a computer yet rank near the bottom as tasks for which people actually use their computers. Instead they are replaced by IM, e-mail, comparison shopping, gaming, blogging, etc. I find it interesting that even among those who don’t explicitly purchase a computer because of the communal aspect, a high percentage apparently spend a lot of time taking advantage of it. So in the end, geeks are not so different from everyone else. They are different to the same extent that hot-rodders are different from quilters. They love to get together and talk about what they love (while having the advantage of being able to create the tools that facilitate that desire) and when they can’t, the go off and enjoy their hobby alone, like everyone else…

…but that’s just my opinion.

You win...

After years of not having a personal web page and steadfastly refusing to create a blog because “I have nothing to say to the world,” I finally realized that I was wrong and this is the solution to all the frustration I have felt over the years from not being able to express myself when pressing issues create strong opinions in my head. What made me even more opposed to blogging was its sudden explosion in popularity and the fact that I am the opposite of trendy. If something is unreasonably popular, especially to the point of being trendy, not only will I not do it, but I will actively avoid doing it. Yet here I am now, with my very own blog complete with lame title and a first post full of mindless stream-of-consciousness drivel.

I hate to relent, but I am not one that can’t admit when I am wrong and will not cut off my nose to spite my face by not joining in the hoopla just to be right. After all, there are two possible reasons “everyone is doing it.” Either it’s just the latest Internet trend or it is the greatest new innovation in communication and pseudo-journalism since the big media powerhouses started publishing on the Internet. I will write more about this in the future along with many other topics, most of which are science and technology oriented, but I have interests in many other fields (politics, religion, sociology, and life in general, just to name a few). One of the things that least appealed to me about blogs was the “on-line diary” nature of many of them and the resulting fluff value I would assign to them as a result. Ironically, however, there is a good chance that that is precisely what is developing here. While I am aiming for something a few notches above that one the journalistic totem pole, only time will tell that for sure.

If I succeed, please feel free to let me know with job offers for editorial columns with on-line news outlets. I have been following the tech industry for more than a decade now and have faired rather well with my predictions, although, since this is my first real on-line presence, I have no supporting evidence thereof. That is what I am hoping to accomplish with this blog: a public forum to voice my take on the goings-on in the world as they happen, again, mostly from a sci/tech perspective. I hope to address old topics at some time or another and many of my early posting will likely be updated versions of old “editorials” that never got published anywhere or compilations of previously unrecorded thoughts on many issues I have pondered in the past. This is where, perhaps, I can make a name for myself with my idle musings, but come on, that’s pretty wishful thinking isn’t it?

Well, yes, but that’s another personal resolution (and promise before God) that I hope to fulfill with this. I have decided that I no longer want to put off doing things that I want to do until [whenever]. I can no longer say “when I grow up…” I am almost 25 years old with a daughter who turns 3 tomorrow and if I’m not grown up now, I never will be. I have waited and second guessed my competencies long enough and I am ready to go for it now. Even as I write this, I am wondering if I have droned on for too long and if I should even post it. At this point, I’m sure I will but I still have to honor my commitment and keep up with the blog after that. Who knows how many blogs and web pages were posted once and never updated again? I will not be one of them. That is why I waited so long before I posted in the first place.

All that finally being said, I will close my first post with a quick thought:

When people tell you to reach for the stars but also tell you to keep your feet planted firmly on the ground, aren’t they telling you to put your head in the clouds?

That’s just the theory I am testing with this blog and I think I can prove myself wrong…

…but that’s just my opinion.